EDMONTON — The three most important Redblacks in Sunday’s Grey Cup game could not be identified by at least 90 per cent of the team’s fans.

That would be their two guards and centre in charge of keeping Stamps defensive tackle Micah Johnson away from Trevor Harris for as long as possible.

The Redblacks acknowledge that Calgary’s top-rated defence has many weapons, but they are also aware that nobody is more dangerous to a quarterback’s health than the 6-foot-2, 278-pounder coming off his best of six seasons.

Johnson, the top interior lineman in the Canadian Football League, was second in the league with 14 sacks — only one less than pass-rushing end Charleston Hughes of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

As good as the Redblacks looked in rolling up 46 points against Hamilton in the Eastern final, the Stamps could hold them to four or six if Johnson and company have a day. In Calgary’s 24-14 and 27-3 victories over Ottawa earlier in the season, Johnson had four tackles, three sacks and one interception.

He also applied a whole lot of other pressure that forced Harris into throwing the ball before he wanted to.

“Micah Johnson is the anchor of that defence … he’s a really good player and he had a great year,” said Alex Mateas, the Redlbacks’ fine centre. “I had a bunch of 1-on-1s against him and he got me a couple of times. Every play you’ve got to be ready for everything.”

The Stamps will flip their Johnson to either side, which means both left guard Evan Johnson and right guard Nolan MacMillian should see plenty of him.

“He had a tremendous season, a great year statistically,” said MacMillan. “Anytime you’re getting that many sacks at that position, you’re obviously impacting the game. He’s a multi-dimensional player. He’s powerful, he’s fast, he’s strong. Just the fact you’ve got to worry about every possibility, every snap makes it extremely challenging.

Calgary Stampeders Micah Johnson (4) has a laugh during practice.JASON FRANSON /
THE CANADIAN PRESS

“Best thing we can do is just communicate and make sure we’re all on the same page. We don’t have any slip ups, we don’t like him get any cheap stuff. Make him work for everything he gets out there.”

Johnson admits he closely watches and tries to model his game after Aaron Donald, the Los Angeles Rams tackle who is revolutionizing the position in the NFL. He says the double digit sacks he had this season were no fluke, and “it’s something I can continue to replicate.”

With his physical attributes, he believes going up against guards and centres “is a big time athletic mismatch in there.”

Johnson knows he’ll get a lot of attention from the Redblacks on Sunday.

“They’re not going to want me to make many plays,” he said. “They’re going to try to neutralize me. Honestly, I’ve dealt with that all season.

“I get slides, I get double-teams, I get chips from the back, I get pretty much the whole sink thrown at me. I’m sure they’ll have something, but we have a lot of great players. If they were able to come out and game-plan for me, we have so many other guys that will get there. All of them get to the quarterback. We’ll see.”

Not counting the regular-season finale in which they used mostly backups throughout their lineup, the Redblacks have not allowed a sack in two games and only a couple in their last three. Part of that has to do with the addition of a second American tackle in Josue Matias, and part of it has to do with the line coming together as a whole.

In the Eastern final, it was superb.

But now comes a Calgary defence led by the likes of Alex Singleton, Ja’Gared Davis, Jameer Thurman … and with a heat seeking missile in Johnson.

“He’s a strong player, but he’s also got some quickness too, some lateral agility … he’s got a lot of tools,” said Evan Johnson. “He can bull rush you and power you back into the quarterback, and he can try to shake you at the line too. There’s a couple of different things you’ve got to look out for with him but we’ll be ready for him.

“It’s going to be a battle of two very strong football clubs. It’s going to be nothing short of a great game, I’m sure.”

If the Redblacks can keep Harris clean, that could be the case. A lot is going to fall on their two guards and centre.

EXTRA POINTS

Presumably, putting together a $700-million lawsuit takes a lot of thought, a lot of work and a lot of time. It’s probably just coincidence that Senators owner Eugene Melnyk filed one against Redblacks owner John Ruddy on the Friday before Ottawa’s football team is about to make it’s third Grey Cup appearance in four years. Melnyk wouldn’t be so petty as to purposely try to distract from the Redblacks’ success. Inadvertently, therefore, he is casting a dark cloud over the Grey Cup for Redblacks fans (some of whom also support the Senators) would want to focus on Sunday’s game. When he realizes this I am sure he’ll feel bad and wished he had waited until Monday …. The Battle of Alberta is once again a mismatch, as the Spirit of Edmonton is drawing huge line ups and rave reviews. Meanwhile, at the Calgary party in a hotel down the street, it cost almost 20 bucks to get your first 330 ml beer, including the cover charge. The line ups and reviews are nowhere near the same. … MacMillan wears No. 66 because his idol did. No, not another offensive lineman he idolized as a kid, or even another football player. “My grandfather and his family grew up in Pittsburgh, and that’s where my dad went to high school, and he was a big Pittsburgh Penguins fan,” said MacMillan, an Arnprior native. “So I grew up watching them, and I loved 66, Mario Lemieux.” …

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